Friday, May 13, 2011

Friday Roundup

Some favorites and a few duds from Friday's commenting.

Favorites, in no particular order:

I chuckled at Vodkanaut's silly comment in the Jail-Bird post. I say this often, but there are certain commenters on Deadspin who can crank out these long-form, punchline-less jokes, and Vodkanaut is a shining example. Beyond all our chatter about format and timing and structure, there's just plain old funny, exemplified by this kind of comment. Sometime soon, we'll dive into the nature of this kind of joke and deconstruct the funny right out of it. In the meantime, enjoy!

I braved the Drunken Hookup Failure post's comments for as long as I could, and came away laughing at this angry, sarcastic comment from Delonte, Interrupted. That's hysterical.

Okay, one more from the Drunken Hookup Failure post; this funny call-out from Fendi Hotdogbun. Punchline right at the end, where it belongs. Nice work.

Also in the Jail-Bird post, our guy fat-leaveher contributed this funny bit of dialogue, earning praise from the crowd. That's a simple enough joke, quite a bit like the Henny Youngman joke from our AzureTexan profile, and like the Henny Youngman joke, the delivery is dry, sharp, and effective. Nice job.

I found myself giggling at a few silly comments in the Brock Lesnar post. This recontextualization joke, from Same Sad Echo, did the trick. The specific language and the preposterous premise worked for me.

The other one from that post, this joke, from MattinglysSideburns, is pretty similar and works for almost the exact same reason. Somehow, the comment's tone - implied by the specific language used - makes it funny. The abruptness of this comment and the swaggering conviction of Same Sad Echo's comment - at some point, we're going to have a conversation about the use of inappropriate tone as a comedic device.

A fucking Drunken Hookup Failure and a post from Emma about a sexy picture of Serena Williams on the same day? Fuck THAT.

In the Wake Up Deadspin post, unstarred commenter dondi203 totally misunderstood what he read and totally failed to actually read the linked content, resulting in this awful joke. Ooof. Pro-tip: make sure you understand the subject of your joke, or this kind of embarrassing mistake will happen.

Unstarred commenter smecktacular left this totally awesome MMA analysis in the Brock Lesnar post. It seems you know your MMA, buddy. Next time, just save it for DUAN. At all other times, be creative and make original jokes.

The Serena Williams post was, predictably, a disaster. I suffered through it. I persevered. And why? Because I more or less gave up on the duds from the Drunken Hookup Failure post. Fuck it. It's my blog.

The first dud comes from unstarred commenter 1jaxstate1. I'd love to know who approved this guy, and I'd love to kick that person in the groin. 1jaxstate1 is a terrible commenter with absolutely no business being on Deadspin. I'd also like to caution Delonte, Interrupted against promoting this kind of thing, especially if you're not going to make a kick-ass joke in your reply. That's dangerous turf.

Unstarred commenter BarbarobicsInstructor earned a mention with this extremely dicey comment. Do I hate it? Well . . . yeah. I hate it. There's probably a way to polish that concept into something tasteful and funny, but it's probably better to stay away.

Also this thing, from unstarred commenter slanket. I'm not even sure what that means. At the heart of my complaint with both of these comments, I suppose, is the fact that they utterly lack any amount of vision or ambition. Instead of shooting for the stars, they're shooting for the gravel. The content, as with everything else, is workable; all topics are available, as long as it's genuinely funny.

Unstarred commenter JohnCandysAppendages was suspended for a week for this doofus photo-joke. Nothing more needs to be said about that. It's just lazy crap.

I suppose there's a way to see this comment, from Jobu81, as madcap and brilliant. The opposing view would be that it's lazy and wasteful. And I am the leader of that opposition.

One more from the Serena Williams post: this turd, from unstarred commenter Moses Hightower, which more-or-less defines failure in commenting, and which earned him a suspension. Seriously, what in blazes were you thinking?

And finally, unstarred commenter Zombie Cucumber bored everyone to death with this soccer analysis in the Alex Ferguson post. Wait for DUAN, hombre. Wait for DUAN.

So that's it. We may have something else way later tonight, possibly tomorrow. At any rate, before Monday. Until then, hey, thanks for sticking around through Blogger's shameful meltdown, and have a great weekend.